Don't Touch Anything!
by Latergatr
Summary: Daniel Jackson finally gets to go to Atlantis with Jack O'Neill along.


Don't Touch Anything 

Author's Note: I haven't seen ALL the Atlantis episodes, so I hope there are no glaring errors here. (Please let me know if there are!) This takes place in early season 9.

Daniel Jackson was busy in his lab, sitting next to his computer, with books open all over his desk. His eyes looked back and forth between the books and the computer screen, and he occasionally added something to the open document. His phone began to ring, and he absently felt along the table with one hand in its direction, still keeping his attention focused on the book he was currently referencing. "Daniel Jackson," he mumbled, juggling the open book while trying to bring the receiver up to his ear.

"Daniel?"

"Jack? What's up?" He was surprised to hear his friend's voice.

"I thought I'd call with some good news. The Daedalus is getting ready to depart to Atlantis, and I thought perhaps you might want to come along."

"What?" He suddenly straightened, the book falling off his lap, papers floating to the floor, and focused all his attention on the caller.

"Dae-da-lus, Daniel," Jack said slowly. "You remember, don't you? Big, honking ship..."

"Jack, I remember what the Daedalus is! I...I'm going to Atlantis?" It was more an exclamation than a question.

"Can you be ready in an hour? We can transport you up from the SGC. There are just a few more little things I have to take care of first, and we'll be there."

"Uh, _we_?"

"One hour, Daniel. See you then."

"But Jack, wait! _We_?" he asked again, but all he heard from the phone was a buzzing tone in his ear. Daniel was stunned. Well, maybe stunned wasn't the right word. He was thrilled to be going to Atlantis, at last! But a part of his mind was niggling away with doubt. _What, Jack didn't want me to go until he could go, too? He thinks I need a babysitter?_ In the end, he decided to let the thrilled part win. He jumped off his bench, and began frantically picking books from his shelves; only those he knew he just had to have, of course.

The trip to Atlantis was 18 days long, and it seemed interminable to Daniel. He spent time with Jack, who was also suitably bored. Although Jack did spend time going about the ship, talking to the crew, familiarizing himself with its various aspects, Daniel thought Jack thought he was on vacation. At the very least, Jack was happy to escape his paperwork for a few days. But there was still that little doubt in Daniel's mind about Jack's presence here.

One day, while Jack was winning yet another chess game, Daniel asked him, "Why are you going to Atlantis at all, Jack? You don't need to go. Who's running the show?"

Jack smirked, "General Hammond. A little pay back for the Prometheus trip when he took you and Walter last year." Jack sighed. "Not to mention the chair. I had my aide hide it before I left, by the way."

Daniel smiled, but fidgeted slightly, his hand paused on the bishop he was about to move. "I thought maybe you just wanted to keep an eye on me."

"Well, there's that," Jack rubbed a hand over his face. "Are you going to move that or what?"

Daniel frowned, then moved the piece.

Jack shook his head, sighed, and moved his queen. "Check mate. Is it time for lunch yet?"

Days later, Daniel was standing on the transporter platform, making sure all his reference materials were there with him. As he cataloged his trove, Jack arrived with his aide and others, who comprised a science team, trailing in his wake.

"All set?" Jack asked, his eyes roving over what looked like to him a mound of books high enough to stock a bookstore.

"Yeah, I think so," Daniel turned to Jack. "You know I'm still curious. Did you relent to my coming here only because you were going, too? I really don't need a babysitter."

"Grumpy, are we Daniel?" he smirked and waved a hand, brushing off the expected retort. "I'm just a general visiting his deployed troops, Daniel. If you didn't want to come along..."

"No, no. This is okay. Really."

"And yet, you mention it again."

Daniel just shrugged and turned back to his books, deciding nothing was going to spoil this day.

Jack watched for a moment, then turned to his aide instructing him to call the bridge and tell them they were ready to depart.

Jack and Daniel transported down from Daedalus with the science team. They arrived in the Jumper bay, which is the first place Jack had wanted to see. As they rematerialized, they saw Dr. Weir and Lt. Col. Sheppard waiting to greet them. Behind them stood Dr. Rodney McKay, Dr. Beckett, and a handful of others from the Atlantis expedition.

"Welcome to Atlantis, General O'Neill, Dr. Jackson, ladies and gentlemen."

"Glad to be here, Elizabeth." Rather than looking straight at her as he answered, O'Neill did a quick 360º, his gaze going up and down, everywhere around the room. Checking out the place, thought Daniel, just as he always had on any new world they visited. His once-over complete, O'Neill stepped forward to shake her hand. He then looked around again, slowly this time, and whistled at all the spacecraft there. "Sweet! Nice digs you have here, Doctor."

"You ain't seen nothing yet, General," Sheppard smiled.

"D'oh! A cliché!" O'Neill responded. Sheppard's smile disappeared. Daniel caught Sheppard's eye and gave him a quick tight smile and a shrug. But before either could say anything, O'Neill was already moving out. "Lead on, then. Let's see what other magic awaits us in Oz."

"This way," Weir began, but O'Neill had already moved past her, heading unerringly toward the city's control and gate room. She hurriedly took a few steps to catch up with him, Daniel and Sheppard following suit.

"Ah, Jack, let me show you..." she trailed off again as he took the next turn, again correctly. She turned to Daniel, "He must have studied the Atlantis schematics."

_"Studied schematics?"_ Daniel returned incredulously.

Entering the control room, it was Daniel's turn to whistle in excitement. "Yes!" he cried, and immediately went to the closest console, attracted by Ancient writing there.

"Daniel, careful! Don't touch anything! We don't want to sink the city again."

"What?" Daniel asked absently, his mind already lost into the translation.

"That panel has the controls to sink the city. You don't want to activate it."

"Oh, so that's what this means...depth..." Daniel suddenly stopped, and looked at his friend with a shocked expression. "Uh, Jack, you're right."

Weir and McKay were crowding next to them, looking at the console. McKay's eyes widened. "We always thought that had something to do with it, but weren't sure. We didn't want to try it and accidentally flood the city," McKay paused and looked up at O'Neill. "Excuse me, General, but how did you know that?"

"What?"

Daniel's head suddenly jerked up and looked at Jack. "Yeah, Jack. How did you know?"

"Well, it is," O'Neill replied, wondering off toward another console in the room, seeming very matter-of-fact, totally unfazed by the exchange. Arriving at the next, he looked at it, and slowly raised a hand toward it.

"Jack, perhaps you shouldn't touch that," Daniel suggested, but Jack ignored him, touching some symbols then looking back at the group with him. His eyes roved the group, and a scowl came to his face.

"Why are you all wearing those headsets all the time? Doesn't that get uncomfortable?" he asked.

"We don't have telephones here, Jack," Weir answered with a smile. "We need to communicate somehow. It's most expedient."

Jack continued moving around the console, brushing his hands lightly over it here and there as he went.

Suddenly Sheppard spoke up. "Because we haven't found anything like that, sir. We know the Ancients could communicate telepathically somehow."

"What?" Jack, Weir and Daniel asked simultaneously. Beckett and a couple of the others looked at them strangely.

"I was answering the general's question," Sheppard glanced between them.

"Yes, you were," Beckett stepped in.

"What question?" asked Daniel

"About why we didn't just use the coms system that already exists."

"Except I didn't ask that aloud, did I?" O'Neill asked, a curious expression on his face, as if he had just realized what had happened. There was silence for a moment. Then Daniel cleared his throat.

"So, ah, just for clarification, would everybody who just heard the General ask about the communication system, please raise your hand?"

"Daniel," Jack growled a warning.

"No, no; just bear with me. Let's see a show of hands."

A half-dozen hands slowly went up around them. Daniel looked around. "Let me guess - all of you have the Ancient gene." Heads nodded from those with upraised hands.

McKay was leaning over the console. "I can't believe it! It was here all the time? Sir, which controls did you touch?"

Daniel noticed Jack was beginning to look a bit uncomfortable. Deciding to rescue his friend, he leaned toward Elizabeth and whispered in her ear, "Maybe, until we figure this out, this particular room isn't the best place for Jack to be."

"I agree," she whispered back, grabbed McKay also, pulling both of them aside. "You two are going to have to keep a sharp watch on the General - make sure he doesn't activate the wrong thing," she whispered, then quickly moved to Jack's side, putting one hand on his arm, leading him away from the equipment. "General, if you'd care to step this way, there is something else I think you'd like to see."

_Great!_ thought Daniel. _Instead of Jack being the babysitter, I'm going to end up being Jack's babysitter!_

Elizabeth turned Jack toward the doors that lead to the outside balcony. "If you'll step out this way, you'll see a wonderful view of the entire city." They all followed Dr. Weir out the door.

"Wow," Daniel breathed, catching his first glimpse of the great city below.

"Yeah, wow," Jack echoed, looking all around him.

"It really is quite breathtaking, isn't it?" Weir led them to the railing.

"Yes, it really is a great view. Bet the view of the stars in the night sky is really great from here."

Daniel had to smile at that one. _Hope somebody here has a telescope,_ he thought.

Jack pointed down and to the left. "You can even see the library from here."

Weir and Daniel exchanged puzzled glances.

"Library?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, way over there, that low spire with that antenna sort of thing? The library. You know, what did you call it? On Ernest's planet? Helicopters?"

"Heliopolis," Daniel's voice trailed off and his mouth flew open, astounded. He looked at Weir, who shook her head, wide-eyed.

"Jack, how do you know that?" Daniel ventured.

"I remember it. Read it in a report, I'm sure."

"No, Jack," Weir replied softly. "We haven't even explored that part of the city yet. We couldn't afford the power it would take to activate another section."

"Not in a report? It must have been."

"No, sorry."

"Jack! Are you saying that there is a meeting place here, a library just like on Ernest's planet? The meaning of life stuff?"

"Yeah, sure there is. Right above their school - or, I think it was like a school..." he trailed off, a puzzled expression on his face, turning to look straight at Daniel. "You don't remember?" O'Neill turned back from the railing to look at each of his companions, one by one. "What?"

"Jack, nobody knows what's in that part of the city," Daniel insisted.

"It had to have been in a report."

"Wasn't."

"Was."

"Wasn't."

"Wasn't? So, what then?"

Weir was regarding them with an amazed and amused smile. "Well, I'd suggest that one of the things we do while Daniel is here is go explore another part of the city."

Daniel was still staring at Jack. "What is going on? Ever since we've arrived here you've been moving around the place and activating things, just like you've always lived here." The epiphany suddenly came to Daniel. His eyes flew wide open and his jaw dropped. "You do remember! This isn't just because you have the ancient gene. Many people here have the Ancient gene, and none of these things had activated, even accidentally. You activated them because you knew where they were and what they were. You're remembering this from having the Ancient database downloaded in your head."

"Now, Daniel, the Asgard took care of that."

"And when you first woke up, Thor said your memories would return...he didn't say which ones."

"Daniel," Jack warned. "That can't be right. That stuff is gone. If it weren't, my brain would be fried."

"But Jack there were other things you remembered. I thought so all along; this is just further evidence."

"Now what are you talking about?"

"On Thor's ship. You remembered how to work the weapon you built."

"Oh, that. Well, now, I just did with it what made sense to do. I knew it had to do something."

"No, you knew exactly what you had to do to use it."

Jack sighed, "Daniel, you're wrong."

"I don't think so, Jack."

"Daniel..."

"Jack..."

Weir stepped in. "It doesn't matter how he knows. This is exciting and important information." Turning to O'Neill she continued, "And perhaps there is more that we can learn from what you seem to ... know. Perhaps you should stay more than just two days, so that we can see if you remember more?"

Daniel's head popped up at that one, and he looked accusingly at Jack. "Two days! We came all this way and we're just staying two days!"

"Relax, Daniel! _I'm_ just staying two days. You've got at least until the Daedalus returns for the next trip, which gives you 40 days at the minimum. Then you can make your case if you want to stay longer," he smiled at his friend and grabbed his shoulder, giving him a little shake. "Unless, of course, you think you need me here to watch you."

Daniel just rolled his eyes. "You're enjoying this aren't you?"

"What?"

Elizabeth intervened again. "Gentlemen, let's move back in. It's dinner time, and I'm really interested in seeing if General O'Neill knows how to operate the Ancient kitchen."

Daniel laughed aloud at the thought of "The General" pulling KP.

"Very funny, Elizabeth," Jack responded, but then his smile brightened. "Is there cake?"

"Of course!"

"Lead on!" He motioned her forward, and as they departed, Jack slapped Daniel on the back, and returned to their original conversation. "This trip was for you, my friend. I just came along because I wanted to see the city, too, and this is part of my command, for crying out loud. Sorry about this Ancient stuff. I didn't mean to worry you."

"Jack, I'm torn - I don't know if I want you to leave immediately before you start up anything else, or if I want you to stay to see what else you know."

O'Neill shrugged. "Fortunately or unfortunately for you, that decision was made before we left. The President wasn't all that happy about letting me go. That is why I only have two days. Your getting to stay for a while was never in question."

He stopped and looked Daniel in the eye. "You don't need me to watch your back anymore, Daniel, and you haven't for quite a while. I know that."

Daniel regarded his friend. "It's been great to work with you again, Jack; even if it's just been a few days. You should get out more."

Jack gave him a crumpled smile. "Yeah, tell that to the Joint Chiefs. Come on," he said, moving off toward where Elizabeth had stopped, waiting for them to catch up. "Let's not let the cake get old."

"Yeah," Daniel agreed, and followed Jack again.

The End.


End file.
